


Beifong's Sacrifice

by LadyVisenya



Series: Tales From Republic City [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Gen, lin holds onto grudges forever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 04:57:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10298042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyVisenya/pseuds/LadyVisenya
Summary: Lin makes choices and has to learn to live with them. Later.





	

Lin wants to hit something. Tenzin if at all possible. She wants to scream and be able to do nothing with all the pain and hurt. She wants to be able to fix this somehow. To somehow go back to when they were eighteen and in love. They haven't been eighteen in a long time.

But most of all she wants to cry. 

She’s always been a serious child. And she can’t remember the last time she cried. It must have been when she was still too young to remember. Or maybe she just doesn’t wan to remember a time before she could metal bend her problems away. 

All the family and friends are invited. 

Even her. 

It’s an insult, especially after how she reacted. But she had to. Lin had to do something or she’d go crazy. 

And everyone’s so busy congratulating Tenzin on finally getting married that they forgot about her. 

No one has told her that it wasn’t her fault. That Tenzin’s an idiot for leaving her for some child. A girl so green she could be Izumi’s daughter. 

Hell. Izumi has a son older than that floozy girl. Pema, a temple acolyte. Mousy brown hair, and smile so wide she has too be gloating. 

But no one else sees it.

But she knows Pema hates her right back. 

Katara’s fawning over the girl. And Aang cut a trip to the northern water tribe early to be here. Even Fire Lord Zuko made the trip over. And they’re all smiling and laughing and so damn happy. But no one has asked her how she feels. 

She’s sure Suyin’s laughing at her somewhere. 

* * *

 

She doesn’t go. 

There’s a majoring smuggling operation she’s been tracking for months. And now there’s finally a lead. A big trade is supposed to go down tonight and Lin doesn’t feel sorry at Izumi’s disappointed face. Pema’s certainly not sorry. 

Lin’s just fine with that. It’s her wedding after all. 

So she spends the night staking out places and chasing down criminals and breaks a rib but they're in custody. That’s less criminals on her streets. She didn’t become Chief Beifong by taking holidays off when her police need her. 

Izumi and Kya stop by. It’s so late that the sun has begun to rise. Lin has known many nights like this one. 

They bring a bottle and all the important details: how Bumi ruined Tenzin’s big night with a drunken speech, Iroh had caught the temple on fire showing off, and Aang had let the sky bison loose again. 

Neither of them mention Pema. It’s easy to pretend that they’re all kids again. 

But Izumi started wearing glasses now. Her own hair has greyed along with Kya’s. Fire Lord Zuko will be stepping down any day now. Her uncle Sokka passed away only last year. The times are changing. 

Everyone’s settling down. 

No wonder her own mother ran off and disappeared. 

Lin wants to do the same. 

* * *

The equalists have taken the city. They’ve taken Air Temple Island. And they all only just got away. They have to flee. They have to protect the world’s only air benders; the last of the air nomads, both benders and non benders. 

It’s a fine day that Rohan choose to be born. 

She’s never seen Tenzin so scared, no matter how fine he says he is. And she can’t begin to imagine how Pema must feel. Lin doesn’t know where this all went south. 

But even in the middle of all of this, Pema has Rohan in a sling and her hand on Tenzin’s shoulder and she’s still keeping Meelo from running off to fight or do something stupid. She’s shouting orders and telling Tenzin where to head. She’s keeping them together because someone has to. 

She has steel in her. Lin can see that now.

It’s the first time Lin has ever been able to look at Pema with anything other than annoyance and the sharp sting of what could have been.

But she never wanted that.

And whats more, now is not the time to reflect on the past. 

Lin has to protect them. Tenzin, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, Rohan, and even Pema. 

Lin grew up with Tenzin. She knew his burden as the only airbender in the family. She knew what that would mean for her if she choose to spend her life with him. Neither of them could be anything other than themselves.

In the end, they wanted different lives. They couldn’t have compromised themselves by forcing something that was already so strained. Especially at the end. 

But Pema has shouldered that weight like it was nothing. Mousy happy Pema has raised a house full of air benders blasting air in her face every five seconds and manages to make it look natural. 

 

 

_Lin sees the ships gaining on them, looks at the family, and knows what she has to do._


End file.
